By MARK R. MADLER Staff Reporter Imagine a keypad floating in the air that allows you to “touch” it – except that it’s only a light projection, so you don’t really touch anything but air. That’s the vision for a product in development at Provision Interactive Technologies Inc. The Chatsworth company, a subsidiary of over-the-counter traded Provision Holding Inc., makes sales kiosks in malls and stores. The kiosks use holographic 3D images to apparently make products float in the air to attract shoppers’ attention. If shoppers want to buy the product, they can download digital coupons from the kiosk or print paper ones on the spot. One of the company’s biggest customers is pharmacy chain Rite Aid Corp., which ties kiosk promotions to Plenti, its loyalty card program. “They’re usually in a high-traffic aisle of the store,” Curt Thornton, chief executive, told the Business Journal. “It grabs their eyeballs, so to speak, and stops them in their tracks. With training, the consumer is going to find that it’s a destination to stop by as they enter the store, have a fun experience and see what’s available.” Thornton said Provision is responsible for selling the advertising on the kiosk to product manufacturers and distributors. The retailer doesn’t pay for the kiosk, and in fact shares in the advertising revenue with Provision. Provision has partnered with Ixonos USA, a software development firm, to develop the futuristic holograph “touchless” screen feature for kiosks. Provision will supply the hardware, while Ixonos will work out how consumers can swipe, push or otherwise interact with the ethereal screen. Thornton compared it to the smartphone, which taught people to “pinch” the screen to shrink images. In Provision’s annual report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2016, it announced revenue of $5 million, compared to $574,500 for the previous year. The higher revenue was attributed to an increase in sales of kiosks to ProDava 3D, which will be placing them in retail stores. ProDava accounted for 98 percent of Provision’s revenue, compared to 64 percent of revenue for the prior fiscal year. The company had 500 kiosks installed that year, and earlier this month announced the installation of another 200. “The good news is we have started to deploy our holographic technology to retail locations,” Thornton said. “We anticipate that this is going to continue into the future.” Leo Kivijarv, the head of research at PQ Media, an emerging media research and econometrics firm based in Connecticut, said that retail is the toughest out-of-home advertising venue that a company like Provision can enter. Unlike other places for screens or kiosks, such as doctors’ offices, gas stations or movie theaters where there is a captive audience, the retail environment has a transient audience that is moving around. “The kiosk is a method with 3D to at least try to get the transient audience to stop,” Kivijarv said. Placing kiosks in stores with a pharmacy – which includes Rite Aid – is a smart move as pharmacies are a hot market. If kiosks are placed close enough to shoppers, they may attract the attention of people waiting to get their prescriptions filled, he noted. Even better is if the kiosks are advertising or giving out coupons for products that consumers can just buy on the spur of the moment. “If you can grab the audience at the point of decision, that is half the battle for you,” Kivijarv explained. The digital out-of-home market, which includes kiosks, 3D displays, digital billboards and signage, is still a small one when compared with the overall advertising industry. PQ Media projects that revenue will be about $2.95 billion this year, and that about 40 percent of that will be generated by movie theaters. The retail markets will generate about $300 million in revenue from its place-based digital networks, Kivijarv said. As a means of comparison, Kivijarv pointed out that Fox television can bring in $400 million to $500 million in advertising just for the Super Bowl. “Fox makes more in three hours than the whole retail digital place-based networks make in a year,” he added. Increasing consumer engagement with retail kiosks can happen by integrating mobile and social media with them, but not all companies in that space have made that connection, Kivijarv said. “If by chance you walk by and get a code for a coupon while you are in Rite Aid, that is a big plus to get somebody from being transient to being captive because they have an incentive to stop,” he added. Provision’s Thornton said that integration is available for some customers using their kiosks. “If they are loyalty card customers, they can download digital coupons to their card or smartphone,” he added. “If not, they can print them on paper at the kiosk.”